


It's a Family Thing

by S_M_F



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: 2018 winter olymipcs, Mentions of Real Hockey Players, but not in any way RPF, women's olympic hockey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-05
Updated: 2018-06-05
Packaged: 2019-05-18 15:07:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14855087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/S_M_F/pseuds/S_M_F
Summary: What happens when SMH and some of the Falconers get together to watch the American and Canadian women's hockey teams face off for Olympic Gold? Hijinks and ridiculousness, naturally.





	It's a Family Thing

**Author's Note:**

> This is a standalone… it doesn’t NOT take place in the same universe as “Jack Zimmermann versus the Kiss Cam” and “Try as You Might…” but it’s not really related to those, either.
> 
> All real people mentioned are actual hockey players doing actual hockey-player things and are included just to give SMH and the Providence Falconers reasons to be ridiculous. Don’t ask me to explain why Nursey’s sister is playing for Team Canada… it’s because of *waves hands* reasons.
> 
> All non-real-person characters are the creation of Ngozi Ukazu; Check, Please is her sandbox and she’s generous enough to let us play in it.
> 
> This is un-beta’d… feel free to let me know if I missed any errors.

It was honestly just pure dumb luck that, on the night that the United States and Canada played for the gold medal in women’s hockey at the PyeongChang Olympics, the Falconers had played an early game and SMH was also on a rest day. Bitty had taken the day off from work (it wasn’t like the PawSox really needed much in the way of PR work in the middle of February) and skipped the Falcs game (it was the Sabres… the Falcs were two-time defending Cup champs and close to locking up another playoff spot… there was really no need for him to be _there_ , either), so the desserts were plentiful.

Just as the puck dropped, the door to Jack and Bitty’s apartment door banged open. “FUCK HARVARD LAW SCHOOL, BRAHS, MY SISTER IS GONNA BRING HOME SOME HARDWARE TONIIIIIGGGGGHTTTTTTTT!”

Lardo followed Shitty into the apartment, shaking her head. “Hi, boys!”

“It’s the gold medal game,” Nursey grumped. “BOTH of our sisters are bringing home hardware tonight. Yours will just be less valuable!”

“You made it!” Bitty gave Lardo and Shitty each a brief hug. “Can I get y’all anything to drink? Some pie?”

“Bitty, the only thing I miss more than your boyfriend’s glorious Canadian posterior is your baking.”

“OK, Shits, one piece of pie and one beer coming up.”

Shitty settled on the couch with his drink and his pie at the same moment that Sarah Nurse was called for icing.

“NOOOOOOOO!” Nursey wailed. “Come ON, S, that’s a rookie mistake!”

“HaHA!” Shitty crowed. “Score one for the Knight siblings!”

Nursey moaned while everyone else settled in on the couch and floor to watch the game.

 

·•●•· First Period ·•●•·

Halfway through the first period, Jack’s phone buzzed and he glanced down at it, then opened the text he’d just received. “Ha!” he snorted.

Bitty glanced away from the game. “Who was it?”

“Phil.”

Nursey and Dex’s eyes got just a little bit bigger, as if they hadn’t regularly been hanging out with various NHL players for the last year and a half.

“He is bragging on his sister?” Tater wanted to know.

“Of course he is.”

 

The score was tied at 0.

 

Later, when the television camera panned the crowd as the officials conferred about a call, Bitty suddenly burst laughing. 

“What is it, Bits?” Jack asked.

“Scott,” Bitty managed to get out between giggles.

“Scott?”

“Scott Moir. Going full Canadian.”

“HEY!” Jack and Ransom both protested.

“Come on, y’all. He won a gold medal in ice dance LAST NIGHT and now he’s flinging beer and yelling at the refs? FULL CANADIAN.”

The Canadians in the room just looked at each other and shrugged.

 

Neither team had managed to score yet.

 

With the US team on a power play and under a minute left in the first period, everyone was crowded so close to the television that Nursey was piggyback on top of Shitty; when Hilary scored and Shitty flung his arms in the air, Nursey ended up flat on his back next to the coffee table.

“Sorry, dude,” Shitty chuckled. “I mean, sorry I dumped you on the floor but NOT SORRY THAT MY SISTER JUST SCORED A GOAL SUCKERRRRRRR.”

The United States carried a one-goal lead into the first intermission.

 

·•●•· Second Period·•●•·

 

During that intermission, the chatter of the assembled hockey players was interrupted by the sound of the apartment buzzer. “Who on earth could that be?” Bitty wondered as he scanned the room. “Everyone we know is already here!”

A couple of minutes later, George walked in the door.

“Boss!” Tater bellowed. “You came to watch the game with us?”

“It’s too exciting to watch at home; I was gonna wake up the rest of the house with my yelling! And I knew from Bitty’s Twitter that you folks were still up and watching.”

“How could we not? The Knight and Nurse family honor is on the line,” Bitty pointed out.

Both Shitty and Nursey hollered and Jack patted George on the back. “Can we get you something to drink?”

“I’ll take a seltzer, thanks, Jack.” She didn’t look surprised when her drink arrived accompanied by a slice of pie.

 

George had just gotten settled on the couch between Tater and Snowy when Haley Irwin somehow redirected the puck past Maddie Rooney and into the goal. Ransom and Nursey jumped up and down and bellowed while Shitty shouted about their celebration being premature.

He started to look a little chastened when the Canadian side took the lead five minutes later.

·•●•· Third Period ·•●•·

The Canadians held onto their lead; control of the game went back and forth for long minutes during the third period, with neither team ever quite able to score. As the game progressed, Shitty and Nursey gradually moved further and further away from each other, until they sat at opposite ends of the couch glaring daggers across the room, as if they could win the game for their siblings from half a world away, just with their eyes.

And then the Canadians botched a line change with just over six minutes left and Monique Lamoureux took advantage of the error to slip one past the Canadian goalie and tie the game. Shitty started to do some sort of victory dance while Nursey protested, “It’s TIED. You’re celebrating that you’re NOT LOSING ANYMORE. What are you DOING?”

The next six minutes of playing time passed; the United States’ players failed to capitalize on a power play and there were no victory dances from either side. It was going to take more then sixty minutes of hockey to sort this one out.

 

·•●•· Overtime ·•●•·

As overtime started, the tension in the room was palpable. Ransom plopped himself down next to Nursey, declaring, “You’re an honorary Canadian tonight, brah. Let’s WIN THIS! Jack, JACK YOU ARE ALSO CANADIAN COME JOIN US!”

Jack looked back and forth between his countrymen on one side and his best friend, boyfriend, and boss on the other. “Ha. So. Who needs a fresh drink?” And he escaped to the kitchen, followed by loud protests from all sides. “I AM SWITZERLAND!” he called from the safety of the refrigerator.

The puppy eyes that Ransom then made at Tater were more successful.

Even in four-on-four hockey, neither team could get an advantage. An American shot caromed off the post and everyone in Jack and Bitty’s living room groaned. Shannon Szabados made save after save; Dex commented, “I hope Chowder’s watching this; she’s amazing!”

When the Canadians went on a power play with under two minutes left, George and Shitty groaned in unison while Nursey and Ransom cackled. But the Americans managed to hold on until the end of overtime.

The game was going to a shootout.

 

·•●•· Shootout ·•●•·

The shootout began with the entire party again standing crowded around the television, jostling for the best spot to be able to see.

“Y’all, it’s a 75” television! You could SIT DOWN!” Bitty chastised them, but of course no one listened.

Canada missed on their first attempt; the Americans scored. In the second round, the opposite happened, and in the third round neither team scored.

When Daoust snuck the puck past Rooney to put the Canadians up 2-1, Shitty and Dex groaned loudly, but Amanda Kessel scored immediately thereafter. “Phil will be so obnoxious!” lamented Tater, and Ransom patted him on the back consolingly.

Neither team scored on their fifth attempt; the shootout remained tied 2-2. The next team to win a round would win the gold medal.

Jocelyn Lamoureux-Davidson approached Szabados. She deked left and the goalie took the bait, lost her balance as she attempted to correct, and the American was able to slide the puck in between glove and post. The entire room, Canadians and honorary Canadians included, erupted in cheers.

“OK everybody BE QUIET!” Nursey ordered. “THIS IS IT.”

Meghan Agosta was set to take the sixth shot for Canada. It was a showdown between the veteran playing in her fourth Olympics, three gold medals under her belt, and the twenty-year old goalie playing in her first.

Nursey and Shitty clutched each other’s hands.

Agosta approached the goal carefully, weaving as if it was just a puck-handling drill. She, too, deked left and shot right. But it wasn’t enough. Maddie Rooney stopped the shot with her leg and then gloved it forward to be sure it couldn’t trickle across he line.

It was over. Shitty and Nursey were crying and hugging each other, apologizing for their earlier competitiveness. Ransom, Holster, and Tater were dancing around chanting “USA! Canada! USA! Canada!” while George and Lardo sat on the couch and laughed at them. Jack was pretty sure that he was going to need to apologize to every other resident of his building, because all of this was happening at 4 in the morning.

As the hubbub died down, Bitty declared, “I’m gonna bake that precious goalie child four pies!” 

Jack looked at him quizzically.

“One for every save in the shootout, obviously.”

Jack shook his head. “Obviously. How are you going to get her address?”

“I am a public relations professional, honey. We have our ways.”

“I have no doubt about that, bud.”

Bitty was already pulling out his phone.

 **Bitty** @omgcheckplease

> hey, @UMDWHockey, who do I need to contact to send @maddie_rooney35 four pies of her choosing? #pyeongchang2018 #goldmedal #USA #preciousgoaliesareprecious

Jack, reading over his shoulder, just laughed and pressed a kiss to Bitty’s cheek. “I should have known it would involve Twitter.”

 

·•●•· Three Weeks Later ·•●•·

 **CaityCait** @CFarms

> Farmer family represent! That’s my cousin @6DFarmer with the equalizer in the Paralympic Hockey Gold Medal game!

**Chowder** @Goalie_CChow

> USA! USA!

**CaityCait** @CFarms

> And the game winner, too! Proud of you, cuz!

**Bitty** @omgcheckplease

> @CFarms just let me know what kind of pies to send him!

**Author's Note:**

> Scott Moir being a typical hockey fan: https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/2018/02/21/scott-moir-cheering-olympic-hockey/ (My lip reading ain’t stellar, but I’m pretty sure that’s an “Are you kidding me? You asshole!” memorialized in GIF form, with bonus Patrick Chan eyeroll.)
> 
> Real-person (and institutional) Twitters are actual verified accounts … go give those amazing athletes and the University of Minnesota - Duluth women’s hockey team some love.


End file.
